World Poetry Richmond shared a multilingual tapestry of Paul Eluard's "Liberté" today~ first the French original, then in English translation, then (the tapestry) stanza by stanza through a kaliedoscope of languages, Nepali and German, Korean and Serbo-Croatian, and many more, a dozen poets presenting in almost as many languages.

One of the many performers was Ibrahim Honjo, whose newest poetry book I dipped into during the coffee break. Photo and poem excerpt from his website, Honjo's Poetry & Art.

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

“For me a poem is just a piece of freedom, just a tiny piece of freedom.
I imagine freedom as a fabric that we all try to stitch a part of, or
clean a part of it. I think that when we write a poem, regardless
whether the poem is good or bad, it is something that makes us feel
relaxed. It is a kind of treatment, like you are going to the hospital,
and this hospital is established only for one hour and only for you. The
only nurse in this hospital is you.”

“You are receiving
yourself and treating yourself. In this treating room, this intensive
care, no one sees you, and you can express and do whatever you want. You
destroy a part of this hospital, you keep another, you sit wherever you
want, and you establish one tiny piece of freedom. It's like a magic
pill that makes us very happy. I want to jump sometimes, when I write a
poem and have conviction in what I wrote, I feel very happy. This sudden
happiness is also confusing. You feel yourself losing your mind, but it
is very good to lose your mind peacefully, without bad consequences.
Poetry is the key to freedom for me.”

Chlorophyll

The wood, which was used
Without love
To make wings of planes
And windows,
That wood
Inhabited by the spirits of hundreds of birds
From when it was part of a tree,
They clung to it,
While contemplating the skin of their little babies
And thinking
The leaves, which protect me from the wind …
Are late …
The wood of that window
Knows
That there are feathers beneath its bark,
That someday
It will be able to steal
Out of these squares
Designed for it
And then it will fly high
Wiping away the sweat of workers from its skin
Boasting
In front of children waiting for their school bus
That its origin was
A group of sparrows.

"Palestinian Mazen Maarouf was raised in Lebanon, and was recently
forced into a double exile in Iceland after criticising the Syrian
regime. His third poetry collection, An Angel Suspended On The Clothesline, was published in Lebanon after he had left.

"We follow him from Reykjavik to Paris as he works on the translation
into French. With his work translated into English, French, German,
Spanish, Swedish, Maltese, Icelandic and Chinese, this rising poetry
star finds himself wandering the world with only his notebook to provide
security."

Saturday, 22 September 2012

Caselist

Twice a year the PEN International Writers In Prison Committee produces a
caselist of individuals around the world who are detained or otherwise
persecuted for their peaceful political activities or for the practice of their
profession.

Read the January – June 2012 Caselist by clicking on the image.... For
previous caselists go to Campaign Resources.

An Extract:

CANADA:

Harassed

*Eric-Yvan
LEMAY: reporter for Journal de Montréal. Officers of Surete du
Québec (Québec Provincial Police) arrived at his home on March 15 2012 with a
search warrant. They seized his computer and some of his clothing, and obtained
fingerprints. Lemay published a series of articles exposing the lack of privacy
surrounding patients’ hospital records in Québec. They included information
from, and photographs of, patient files that had been left open in public view.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression believes this raid to be an attempt to
intimidate Lemay and other journalists.

COLOMBIA

Imprisoned
– Main Case

*Luis Agustín GONZÁLEZ: journalist for the
newspaper Cundinamarca Democrática was on 29 February 2012 found guilty
by the supreme court of offending the honour of the ex governor of
Cundinamarca, Leonor Serrano de Camargo, but was absolved of libeling him.
González had been found guilty in September 2011 of both charges earlier, based
on an article he wrote in 2008 questioning the political aspirations of the
then governor. The article was entitled ‘NO MAS!’ (No More). The supreme court
modified a previous sentence, and González will now serve 18 months and 18 days
in prison, with a fine of 17 months’ salary.

On trial

Angye GAONA (f): poet,
cultural worker and student, is on trial for“aggravated conspiracy for drug
trafficking and rebellion” (concierto para delinquir agravado con fines de
narcotráfico y rebellion). She was arrested on 13 January 2011 in Cucuta,
Norte de Santander department, near the border with Venezuela, and detained at
Buen Pastor Prison in Cucuta until her release on bail on 21 May, three days
after the maximum 90-day period during which she could be legally held without
charge. At the time of her release, the charges against Gaona had not yet been
formalised and the prosecution had yet to present any evidence against her.

Legal case: The hearing in which Gaona was formally charged took place in
Cartagena on 23 May, two days after her release; her lawyer attended but Gaona
was not obliged to appear in court. The arrest warrant against her has not yet
been revoked and the Attorney General has appealed her release order. Gaona
denies the charges and maintains that the case against her is a set-up and is
due to her leftwing sympathies. She says she was not interrogated even once
during her three months’ detention, and also questions the fact that she was
detained in Cucuta when the case has been brought in Cartagena, more than 400
km away.

Update: Her trial began on 15 February 2012, in Cartagena de Indias.

Possible reasons for arrest: Gaona’s supporters claim the real reason for her arrest is her
outspoken support for the demands of a labour union in the district where she
lives. Her detention has been linked to that of three other student activists
in the region, Julián Aldoni Domínguez, William Rivera Rueda and Aracely
Cañaveral Vélez. The arrests reportedly took place in the context of a wave
of attacks against human rights defenders in the Santander region, including
attempted assassinations and forced disappearances and death threats, and
against informal economy workers affiliated to the Colombian Trades Union
Congress (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, CUT) in Bucaramanga. It is feared
that the arrests are intended to silence their legitimate human rights
activism.

Trial Concerns: Gaona maintains that she has been depicted as a terrorist by the
press, that witnesses against her are former members of the armed forces, and
that the prosecution is using recordings of
allegedly incriminating telephone conversations as evidence against her.
Her defence deny that it is Gaona’s voice in the recordings.

Background: Born in Bucaramanga on 21 May 1980, Gaona’s poems have been
published in anthologies and other print and internet publications in Colombia
and abroad. In 2009 she published her first book, Nacimiento Volátil (Volatile
Birth) (Editorial Rizoma).Until her detention a student of languages
and literature at the Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Gaona
is a former organiser of the Medellín International Poetry Festival and in 2001
organised the International Exhibition of Experimental Poetry, also in
Medellín. Prior to her arrest, she organised poetry events in Bucaramanga. She
is also said to work as a journalist for community media. Gaona is the mother
of a young child.

Edinson
LUCIO TORRES: internet journalist (author of the blog “Lucio y sus notas”) based
in Cartagena, Bolivar, is on trial for allegedly defaming a former senator. The
senator sued Lucio Torres for criminal defamation in October 2006 after the
journalist reported on his blog and radio programme that the former senator was
one of eight people shown to have links with paramilitary groups. Lucio Torres,
who is also the Bolívar head of the opposition Polo Democrático political
party, reportedly based his comments on reports from national newspaper El
Tiempo, the regional Ombudsman’s Office and a non governmental
organisation. The charges against him were admitted on 14 February 2008 and the
Prosecutor’s Office subsequently ruled that Lucio Torres did not have
sufficient proof for his allegations and had slandered the plaintiff. The
initial hearing commenced on 19 February 2010, having reportedly been postponed
six times. On 26 April 2011 Lucio Torres was found guilty of aggravated
defamation and sentenced to 14 months in prison and a fine. He appealed the
sentence. At 31 December 2011, Lucio Torres was still waiting for his appeal to
be heard before the Tribunal Superior de Cartagena (High Court of Cartagena).
No further news at 30 June 2012.

Kidnapped

*Roméo
Langlois: former Le Figaro journalist and documentary maker was kidnapped by
members of the FARC at the end of April 2012 while he was filming soldiers
destroying cocaine laboratories. FARC described him as a prisoner of war and
said that he would be released only if the government engaged in public talks
about freedom of information. The government said that it will not negotiate
with terrorists. The journalist was released a month later on 30 May 2012.

Sunday, 16 September 2012

"Taqralik
Partridge is originally from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, in Arctic Quebec. She
is a spoken word artist, writer, and throatsinger of Inuit and Scottish
heritage. As an urban Inuk, she speaks to city life in the south with a
style grounded in the tradition of Inuit storytelling blended with
“urban speak.” She weaves real-life stories with rhyme, lullaby, and
throatsinging. She has toured the Canadian Arctic with the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra. She now lives in Montreal." - Ogamas Aboriginal
Literary Festival 2009

The opening scene of the 1920 silent
film, "Daughter of Dawn," by Norbert Myles. The film was rediscovered
and restored by the Oklahoma State Historical Society, Dr. Bob
Blackburn, Executive Director. The musical score was composed by Dr.
David A. Yeagley (Comanche). Dr. Yeagley was commissioned by the
Oklahoma State Historical Society, December 12, 2007. The music was
performed and recorded by the Oklahoma City University Philharmonic,
Benjamin Nilles, Conducting.

Discovery of Long-Lost Silent Film With All-Indian Cast Has Historians Reeling

By Jordan WrightAugust 28, 2012

This wildly ambitious project had an all-Native cast, just one
cameraman, no costumes, no lighting, no props and wild buffalo. The
Indians, who had been on the reservation less than 50 years, brought
with them their own tipis, horses and gear. Featured in the film were
White Parker, Esther LeBarre, Hunting Horse, Jack Sankeydoty and Wanada
Parker, daughter of Quanah Parker, a Comanche chief and one of the
founders of the Native American Church movement.

...

Once descendants of the Kiowa and Comanche cast members were identified, Blackburn arranged to screen The Daughter of Dawn
for the families in the Oklahoma towns of Anadarko, Carnegie and
Lawton. “There were tears,” he recalls. “They recognized an aunt or a
grandparent, and out of that conversation came recognition of the tipi
used in the film. It was very powerful for them to see family members
who were pre-reservation wearing their own clothing and using family
heirlooms that had been brought out of trunks. It was very emotional for
them.”